CBI raids 16 locations in Mumbai and Chennai, top I-T official among four held

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, January 12, 2015: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) busted a bribery nexus involving Income Tax officials, chartered accountants and businessmen. The agency officials also arrested four people, including a senior IT officer.

Acting on a tip-off, CBI officials raided around 16 locations in Mumbai and Chennai and seized cash and other valuables. According to sources, a joint director of the IT department was arrested. Some other top officials in the two metropolitans are also under the scanner. They may be arrested later.

In the operation that began on Saturday across Mumbai and Chennai, the agency officials arrested joint commissioner of Income Tax department in Chennai Salong Yaden, chartered accountants Sanjay and Shreyas Bhandari and the managing director of a Chennaibased real estate firm Hitesh Kawad.

According to the CBI, Yaden was nabbed redhanded while he was allegedly accepting a bribe from the chartered accountants. The CBI has registered a case under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1998 against the arrested persons.

"The chartered accountants were working as middlemen for the real estate firm by seeking favours from IT officers," a CBI official said.

Sources revealed that the investigation is not restricted to a particular firm as the agency suspects that there could be a bigger cartel of chartered accountants who work as middlemen for other private companies. "It seems to be a well organised cartel involving many IT officers. We are trying to get information to crack down on the racket," the official added. The probe, at a later stage, could widen and IT officials in other cities could also come under the CBI scanner. In the 16 locations raided so far, the agency has seized cash and ornaments worth Rs.1 crore, 16 laptops, 13 CPUs, nine mobile phones, three iPads, property papers and other documents.

Several IT officers from Chennai and Mumbai are on the CBI radar and more raids and arrests are likely in the two cities. Property documents that have been seized are being examined to determine if they correspond to the properties given as bribes. Investigators are also scanning the laptops, iPads and mobile phones to get more gather evidence.


Courtesy: Indiatoday